1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a receiving apparatus and method, an information distribution method, a filtering and storing program, and a recording medium, which can be applied to, for example, a cumulative-receiving-type digital broadcasting system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, among methods which have already been put into practical use in broadcast media, a method of filtering content which is distributed according to attributes and preferences of a viewer in order to store only the content which matches those of the viewer does not exist. As a method which has been used in practice, there is a method in which genre information is added to program information for an EPG (Electronic Program Guide), the program information is filtered according to the genre information preferred by the viewer, and recommended programs are then provided to the viewer. However, since such a method is not a method of filtering the content itself, some work is necessary for the viewer to select a desired program from a displayed list of recommended programs. Furthermore, for a broadcaster such as a broadcasting station, the probability that a target viewer watches the content which is provided becomes low. In addition, since the content is in program units, there is another problem in that filtering in units of data content, which is a subdivision unit, cannot be performed.
Recently, the specification of a new broadcasting system, in which a storage device such as a hard disk is provided, content is acquired from a broadcast, the Internet, etc., the content is stored in a storage device, and a viewer watches a desired program at a desired time, is being formulated by the “TV Anytime Forum”, which is a standardization organization. In the “TV Anytime” specification, a model of filtering and storing in content units is assumed. Here, a model is assumed in which attribute information, such as the genre of the content, is transmitted as meta data, and on the receiving side, content which matches a user profile is filtered by a process of matching a set user profile with the attribute information.
The algorithm of the filtering proposed earlier depends strictly on the functionality at the receiver side. In other words, since filtering is specific to the receiver maker, it is considered to be difficult to manage for a broadcaster which desires that filtering be widely performed in the unified manner for assumed target viewers. For example, in a case where direct mail is to be distributed by a broadcast, there is a problem in that it is not possible to distribute direct mail to a sufficient number of persons.